SO fiddle
Test Fiddle mainly for SO Questions
by Nick Craver
HTML
<link rel="stylesheet" href="http://ajax.googleapis.com/ajax/libs/jqueryui/1.8.4/themes/overcast/jquery-ui.css">
CSS
td { border: solid 1px #ddd; padding: 5px; }
JavaScript
var html = '<table > \
<tr> \
<td><a href="/link.html" onclick="javascript:aFunction()">some text</a></td> \
<td><a href="/anotherlink.html">some more text</a></td> \
</tr> \
</table>';
$(html).find('a').replaceWith(function() {
return this.innerHTML;
}).end().appendTo(document.body);